


choke on the surest of favors

by orosea



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Multi, angsty sasuke, no happy ending lol, roughly around chapter 483 (i think)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-13
Updated: 2018-01-13
Packaged: 2019-03-04 04:10:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 950
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13356216
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orosea/pseuds/orosea
Summary: “Please, Sasuke-kun.”A huff of uncharacteristic disbelief bubbles in his chest. This is not the first time she has tried to battle his instincts, his will, but if Sakura can do anything well, it’s latch onto memories. Fragments of his shadow that she’s always walking behind, stepping on.It brings back unpleasant memories.





	choke on the surest of favors

**Author's Note:**

> this is just me indulging myself for some of my (guilty) interests. i might do more in the future if im bored enough during the overwatch league

Of all things Sasuke expected to see, she was not one of them.

* * *

_She’s a simpering little girl. That’s his first thought when he sees long, incredibly impractical, hair that flutters around her face innocently and the way her eyes crinkle at him when she smiles. Or he would think that if he wasn’t already completely right. As usual._

_“Sasuke-kun!” Her lips part to form a gentle circle. “Pretty cool that we’re on the same team, right?”_

_She seems pleased._

_He is not._

* * *

His grip on her throat is tight, just enough for him to feel the smooth expanse of skin underneath her cloak and how her heartbeat thuds under his palm. She lets out a gasp, a plea, but she doesn’t struggle.

She thinks he won’t hurt her.

She never did understand change, he muses. Some part of Sasuke, the one he left behind with Sakura and Naruto twinges. With guilt or anger, he can’t tell.

“Please, Sasuke-kun.”

A huff of uncharacteristic disbelief bubbles in his chest. This is not the first time she has tried to battle his instincts, his will, but if Sakura can do anything well, it’s latch onto memories. Fragments of his shadow that she’s always walking behind, stepping on.

It brings back unpleasant memories.

* * *

_He gasps and it burns. From his lungs to his ankles, he can feel fire. It’s painful, agonizing even, but he doesn’t wish it would stop. There is something heady in the sensation, like his whole body is feather light._

_Because at the junction of his neck and shoulder, he can feel **power**._

_He tastes it in his mouth as he makes his first steps towards the sound ninja. He doesn’t know if this seal has him drunk on adrenaline or he truly does feel rage at Sakura’s endangerment but it produces the same result._

_He wants to crush the sound kunoichi, feel her bone and muscle beneath his fist, hear the same anguish. But first, he wants to shear her hair and watch the raven strands flutter to the ground next to Sakura’s own._

_So he steps again, the girl paralyzed in shock at the maroon glare he shoots at only her._

_“Please, Sasuke-kun.”_

_There is an anchor and it drags Sasuke down._

* * *

He releases Sakura, watching as her knees give out under her.

He doesn’t like the weakness that stuttered the way his hand clenched her throat, the way his heart panged at the thought of losing Sakura. Like an old wound.

It’s scar tissue over his emotions, an old ache he is used to. Like when he gets a whiff of something that reminds him of mother’s cooking or when he dreams about a hand patting his head gently.

It only surprises him because he never put much weight into those hopeful green eyes. Until now. Until he knows what has to happen. Until he can only think of pretty smiles and forgiveness given to him unconditionally. Loyalty.

He steps forward towards Sakura, just like in his memory. His fingers rise to her forehead and she is stock still, even when he just taps his fingers softly.   
  
“How annoying.”

She is still an anchor and he will have to cut the chain.

* * *

_“Take me with you.” She bargains almost cooly but he can see it. The electricity of her emotions dancing along her chakra, conducting as she speaks, pleads. He’s afraid that If he gets too close he’ll get struck by the lighting in her words._

_She’s defiant and it’s not nearly the bravest he has seen the girl. That could awarded to any time, in the forest or in between the chidori and rasengan. She is always thinking about someone else when she swallows her fear._

_Which is why she cannot come with him. He briefly entertains the idea but banishes it as soon as he sees the sympathy in her eyes, pools of emerald green just swirling with hope._

_She thinks she can save him._

_He turns away. They will not let him do what he needs. He thinks back to that time in the forest, how easily he could have eviscerated the sound ninja, fear palpable in the air._

_It is the only possible way to beat Itachi._

_“Thank you.” He whispers before jutting a hand into her spine._

_He is being honest._

* * *

Her breath is still, halted at the proximity. She still doesn’t understand the gravity of the situation, the way her jugular is bared to him, how she holds no defensive position.

She may have known Sasuke years ago but Sakura has not changed. At her core she is still naive and righteous. She thinks the same of him.

He could be, for all he knows about himself these days. Days where the dull ache actually eats away at him, where he can only think of Naruto’s idiotic grin or the way Sakura’s nose would wrinkle before she called Kakashi a pervert, or even when Kakashi himself would laugh along with them.

But Sasuke is quick to expel these thoughts that threaten to fog over the one thing he actually wants in life. He is shrewd.

So his hand lowers from her forehead. She doesn’t seem as horrified as she should be when it crackles with a cobalt energy she has only confronted once before. She just seems sad, it stirs in the corner of her lips and lines of her eyes. She accepts this from him, true to her character till the end.

She thinks her death will save him.

He raises his arm and aims to kill, driving his hand into her heart. The feeling of bone and muscle under his fingertips is nothing like he thought it would be.


End file.
